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Harvey has 'paralyzed' a critical part of US manufacturing supply chain

Many of the plastics and specialty chemicals that factories across the United States depend on are stuck on the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, threatening to create supply shortages and raise prices for U.S. manufacturers, CNBC reports.

The U.S. Gulf Coast is home to about 90 percent of the nation's capacity to turn out base plastics, the building blocks for a wide range of consumer and industrial goods. Petrochemical plants that make the products and the rail companies that ship them are still restoring service after Harvey brought devastating flooding to southeast Texas.

"The supply channel is paralyzed currently," said Kathy Hall, executive editor at PetroChem Wire, an industry information service. "Plants are coming back, but we're not seeing anything moving out of the area."